Ray Stevenson Interview by David Fletcher (INDEPENDENT FILM QUARTERLY)

Ray Stevenson first came on the scene as the lead in HBO’s Rome. Since then, he has managed a steady stream of work as a vital part of ensemble casts in Cirque du Freak, Book of Eli and The Other Guys.

In March, Anchor Bay released Kill the Irishman –the true story of Danny Greene (played by Stevenson), a tough Irish thug working for mobsters in Cleveland during the 1970s. In May he will star as Volstagg in Paramount’s Thor and then in the Fall as Porthos in Summit’s 3D The Three Musketeers. It’s confirmed: 2011 is the Year of Ray Stevenson.

Independent Film Quarterly’s David Fletcher recently sat down with Ray Stevenson inside his suite at The London Hotel in West Hollywood, CA.

IFQ: Can you tell me a little bit about your character in Kill the Irishman?

Ray Stevenson:  Danny Greene! When I first read the script, I thought something resonated. I heard this story before somewhere. Then I remembered three or four years previous, I saw American Mobsters. This particular episode was about Danny Greene. I remembered the live footage, the bits of Shondor Birns car after his demise, and Cleveland at that time and tracking his life. It’s such an amazing slice of Americana. It was a period when cars didn’t get any bigger, lapels didn’t get bigger, mustaches didn’t get bigger. Actually, the criminals didn’t get any bigger. Danny Greene was larger than life. He used to wear a Lincoln green suite and green pants. He was in your face. What you saw was what you got. After this period, everything went a bit more sophisticated, underground and unseen.

IFQ: I grew up in the New York/New Jersey area and there is a large Irish American presence there, as well as Boston, etc. Were you aware that Cleveland had this type of Irish mafia going on?

RS: No. I didn’t. In fact, in the story it was Italian mafia run and out of New York, Detroit, Cleveland, that whole sort of sweep right up to Montreal. What I love about the story is that it’s a man’s journey; it’s a criminal’s journey. He’s a villain; he’s a mobster; he’s a racketeer, but aspiring to affiliate himself with the mafia and becoming the head of the Longshoremen’s union. He rounded up Irish American affiliates and set up his Irish crew and literally went to war with the Italian mafia on the streets and turned Cleveland into the bomb capital of the U.S. in ’77. 32 or 37 bombs went off. These were serious car bombs and there was blood on the streets. It’s such a slice of that period in American culture and history.


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